Fix: Photos error “Package could not be registered”

When you double-click an image file (e.g., .jpg, .png, .gif files) with the Photos app set as the default program on your Windows 10 computer, error Package could not be registered may pop up.

Package could not be registered - photos app

This post has instructions on how to fix the problem.

Fix: Photos error “Package could not be registered”

Step 1: Reset or Repair Photos app

  1. Click Start, Settings, Apps, Apps & Features.
  2. Select Microsoft Photos and click on the Advanced options link.
    Package could not be registered - photos app
  3. Click Terminate to close the app if it’s running in the foreground or background.
    Package could not be registered - photos app
  4. Click on the Repair button.
  5. See if you’re able to open image files in Photos app by double-clicking.
  6. If the issue is unresolved, switch to the Settings window.
  7. Click Terminate to close the app.
  8. Click Reset to reset Microsoft Photos configuration to default. Your personal files and image sources collection shouldn’t be affected.
  9. Open the Photos app reconfigure the settings.

Step 2: Uninstall & Reinstall the Photos app

Start PowerShell as administrator.

package could not be registered - photos app

Run the following command in the PowerShell console:

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos | Remove-AppxPackage

This uninstalls the Photos app.



To reinstall Photos, run the following command:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.Windows.Photos | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

(Refer to the article How to Reinstall the Photos App in Windows 10? for more information.)

Still doesn’t help?

If the above steps don’t help, try the following:

Hope one of the above steps helped you get rid of the Package could not be registered (0x80073CF6) error when opening images using Photos.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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